


Practical Magic

by bethgreenewarriorprincess



Category: Practical Magic (1998), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-10-30 12:00:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10876353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethgreenewarriorprincess/pseuds/bethgreenewarriorprincess
Summary: The Greene family curse had been in effect for as long as anyone could remember, the latest victim Beth herself. Now a widow, she and her two young daughters go to live with her aunts. Maggie is off living the life until one night her boyfriend goes off the deep end and Beth has to bail her out of trouble. Enter one Daryl Dixon, tracker extraordinaire and it's about to get messy





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is going to be my take on a Bethyl supernatural type AU. It came at the request of mellymoo13 here on . She thought I could do it justice and I sure hope she was right. Thank you my dear and I hope this does not disappoint. There will be some wizardry and spells and just general magic because it's actually a part of my heritage. But I thought a practical magic AU for Bethyl would be interesting. Warning: This story also contains some Brick at the beginning but its necessary to give Beth's back story with her two young daughters. If you've seen the movie, I am sure you can guess. Also for any Brick readers out there, please know that there is a character death. We will see Rick in flashbacks and that's about it. Just wanted to forewarn everyone so no one is upset or surprised. So without further adieu, here it is:

Chapter 1

 

Amas Veritas

**Twenty years ago, Gull Island, Georgia**

"I can't wait to fall in love." The brunette girl swung back and forth on the swing tied to the tree in the aunt's yard.

Beth barely glanced at her sister Maggie as she gathered the items she would need for her spell or in her case an anti-spell. She was still heartbroken at the loss of their mother. She had died of a rare heart disorder several months ago after contracting a virus but everyone knew what had really happened. After their father died in a boating accident, their mother had never recovered. In Beth's eyes, she had quite literally died of a broken heart. She was determined she would never suffer the same fate. She would be quite content to live out a life of spells, tea and writing poetry in the old southern plantation their ancestors had settled in over one hundred years ago.

Beth plucked a bright crimson rose petal and placed it into her bowl, beginning the spell.

"He'll hear my call from a mile away." Plucking another she continued down the path of the rosebushes, picking out the brightest and most fragrant petals on the blooms.

"He'll be fiercely protective of those he loves." She hated her voice. Her momma had said she had the voice of a songbird. She didn't know what that meant really, she only knew that the only time she liked her voice was when she sang.

"He will whistle my favorite song." Beth picked another petal.

"He will be marvelously kind." She whispered.

"What are you doing?" Maggie asked her sister. She was so intense sometimes.

"I'm casting a true love spell." Beth informed her primly, picking another petal, this one more vibrant than the last.

"He can flip pancakes into the air." She closed her eyes as she placed it in the bowl.

"He will have wings, large and white, like an angel." Beth whispered to the sky.

"He will be fast and swift and he will carry a bow." Beth placed the final petal into the bowl and with a wave of her hand they began to swirl in a dizzying pattern of reds, candy apple, deep burgundy and crimson. Beth blew gently over the petals and smiled as they swirled up into the night sky, the twinkling stars and full moon a perfect backdrop.

"I thought you didn't want to fall in love." Maggie asked her.

Beth looked at her sister and she felt 80 instead of 8 as one tear slipped out of her eyes. "That's the point, the guy I dreamed up doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist then I'll never fall in love and die of a broken heart."

_Present Day; Gull Island, Georgia_

"Momma am I witch?" Annie's voice broke Beth from her reverie.

Beth crouched down in front of her youngest daughter, straightening out her collar on her shirt. The girls had started going to the only Catholic school on the island just yesterday. "What made you ask that baby?" Beth could guess. It was only the oldest news on the island. The Greene family curse and how it was all their fault for being witches in the first place.

Annie brushed her chestnut curly hair back from her face as she looked into her mother's eyes. They were blue just like her daddy's and it nearly took Beth's breath away every time she looked into them. "Girls at school. They said you and aunt Maggie were witches and the aunts too."

"Annie my love don't listen to those girls." She stood back up and muttered under her breath "in twenty years nothing has changed on this island?"

"What dear?" Aunt Hattie walked into the kitchen with fresh herbs from the garden. She was the oldest of the aunts and always the first to rise. Aunt Prue was more of a late riser.

Beth sighed looking at her spinster aunt. It didn't seem that long ago that she'd thought she'd be relegated to the same solitary life. "You'd think they'd find something else to talk about after all these years".

"You know how it is dear. The Greene women have been the talk of this island for the last 100 years". Beth rolled her eyes, though she didn't let her aunt see. She spoke of the Greene family curse as if it was a thing of pride. She guessed to the aunts, the curse their ancestor Katherine placed on the Greene women would be a source of pride. It was their heritage but dammit Beth hated it sometimes.

The story went something like this: Katherine Greene had fallen in love with a sailor and they were deliriously happy but then her husband was killed in a tragic accident. She banished herself to Gull Island where she lived out her days as a spinster. Brokenhearted and bitter, she cast a spell upon all Greene women. Any time they should fall in love, their lover would befall a similar tragedy as her beloved. Upon the toll of the death beetle, they would know that Death was coming for their lover. It was only a matter of time. So far, the curse had never been broken. Both aunts had lost their loves as teenagers. Their mother had managed to keep their father Hershel for longer than most. He had died when she and Maggie were 8 and 10, respectively. Their mother, Annette, was dead within a year.

"Bye Momma." Ella whispered. Her oldest child was more sensitive, quieter and even more so since Rick passed.

"Remember, we don't say goodbye, sweetheart." Beth held her chin in her hand and smiled softly at her daughter. She hated goodbyes it was true, but she hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Rick. She didn't know whether to be grateful or not.

Ella beamed at her then, her smile clenching Beth's heart in a tight grip. "That's right Momma, we don't like good-byes. See you later, I love you." Beth smiled at her daughter, the spitting image of herself if the truth were to be told and kissed her forehead.

"You have a great day at school sweetheart." She leaned over and kissed Annie's forehead as well. "And don't be listenin' to those girls at school. You are not witches."

She knew the aunts went against her word and were teaching the girls some of the spells behind her back but she couldn't be mad. Not really. Her own mother had said the same thing but the thing of it was, the Greene family brand of magic was second nature.

Beth sighed as she watched her girls get on the bus for school. Some days it was hard to put one foot in front of the other. Especially on days like today when she missed her husband so bad she wanted to crawl back in bed and never leave. It had only been two weeks since they came to live with the aunts. Beth couldn't bear moping around the three bedroom cottage she and Rick had gutted and rebuilt one detail at a time the first glorious year of their marriage. Every board, every dish, every piece of furniture was a stark reminder of the life she no longer had and the love she had lost. She choked back a sob, the memory a fresh dagger to her already shattered and bleeding heart.

She tidied up in the kitchen. The aunts had gone to bingo at the community center in town. By 10:00 a.m., she'd taken back to her bed. Sophie and Annie were off to school and for five hours she could pretend she was still waiting on Rick to get home, covers over her head.

She missed her sister. "Maggie". Her name came on a choked cry. She'd know just what to say to make her feel better.

More like twins than sisters they'd always had a special bond. The magic they shared, their gift of the Greene coven only strengthened that bond. She covered her head up and sobbed into her pillow barely aware of the passing time of day.

She awoke later with Ella curled beside her. It was dark out. She gently nudged her daughter awake. "Go get in your bed sweetheart". She kissed her oldest child on the forehead her long straight blonde hair tickling her face. She reminded Beth of herself at the same age. At seven she'd been just as gangly. She watched with a heaviness in her heart as she padded out of the room sleepily. Her daughters missed their dad something fierce.

Beth closed her eyes and tried not to think too hard on how good it felt to be in love, to be loved. She had a life she loved and now? He was just gone.

"Wakey, wakey". The whisper came from beside her and her eyes flew open to greet her sister's deep chocolate eyes, full of love looking back her.

"Maggie" she breathed. She dissolved into tears almost immediately. "I was really happy."

"I know Bethie. I'm so sorry I couldn't get here sooner." Maggie crooned as she pulled her into her embrace. She'd given Shane a sufficient amount of Belladonna to get away for a while. She'd be back by the next night and he'd be upset at her absence, but she could deal with him later.

Maggie stroked her baby sister's hair, soft and smooth, so unlike her own coarser, darker hair. As she held her sister as she cried, she was overtaken by a sense of home. Just like that it was like no time or distance had ever separated them. Just like always.

They laid in Beth's bed she'd barely left the past week and Beth told her how Rick had been killed crossing the street. Just a freak accident they'd called it. Rick had been assisting old Mrs. Wells across the street. He had been the Sheriff in town. The truck had come careening around the corner and clipped him in the back of the knees. He'd hit his head on the pavement. Gone in an instant they'd said.

"It was the curse." Maggie breathed.

"I'll never forgive them. I didn't want to fall in love. I didn't ask for this". The aunts had cast a true love's spell, an Amas Veritas, just like the one Beth had performed herself when she was younger and naïve enough to think that she had some kind of control over her life, her fate. She had fallen in love with Rick and he with her and they had never looked back. Little could Beth know, she'd be looking back on that now as a blessing and a curse.

Maggie looked at her sadly. "Beth Anne Greene, you may not have asked for this but your little girls didn't either. I heard your call."

"I didn't summon you Maggie." Beth's tone was low, a warning. Maggie knew how she felt about magic now.

"You didn't have to Beth. Our bond is strong." Maggie said quietly. "But I do know one thing. Your daughters need you. The aunts do too. And I need you. So you need to get up and get out of this bed. And live. Or you'll never forgive yourself."

Beth looked at her sister, hating that she was right. She nodded.

Maggie grinned, a twinkle stealing into her eyes "And brush your damn teeth because your breath stinks!"

Beth giggled then sat up brushing errant strands from her forehead. "Okay, okay you don't have to be mean about it". Beth pretended to be offended. Heart still heavy, Beth gathered items for a much needed shower.

"I met a guy". Maggie was sitting cross legged on the bed twirling her hair around one finger.

"What's his name this week?" Beth teased.

"Shane Walsh". Maggie feigned a swoon. "He's so hot Beth." Maggie flopped backwards on the bed, recounting all the subtle and not so subtle nuances of Shane that she was so taken with. Magic or no magic that man could make a girl feel things. Maggie shook her head.

"He's hot, he's rich, and smart. And so utterly, devastatingly sexy he can charm the panties right off any girl." Maggie wiggled her eyebrows at her sister.

"Mags!" Beth blushed.

"What? It's true. I know he did mine." Maggie pulled her knees to her chest. "Besides you-" Maggie had been about to refer to Beth being an old married lady. Her worried eyes connected with Beth's and she saw the hurt there.

"It's okay, Mags." Just the two of them together again it was hard to imagine anything bad could happen.

"I hate to run, but I gotta get back. Shane doesn't like me goin' places without him but I couldn't let the aunts see him. They would most definitely _not_ approve." Maggie gave her a wolfish grin as she hopped off the bed and grabbed her bag from the floor. Beth walked her to the balcony off her room where she had likely slipped in.

"I love you Bethie." Maggie threw her arms around her sister's neck.

Beth drew in a deep breath. She would not cry. "Gonna miss you Magpie." Beth used their father's nickname for her.

"I'll be right here." Maggie pulled out of Beth's embrace and tapped her on the forehead. It was true. Ever since they were small, they had been able to communicate somewhat telepathically without ever being told how. No one questioned it. They just knew it. It was a large part of why Beth and Maggie had been teased in school.

If Beth was going to admit it, Ella and Annie were already showing signs of the same thing.

"Love you Maggie." Beth called out into the night, watching her sister walk across the plantation lawn to the waiting taxi.

Beth looked up at the stars and all at once she recalled the night, a night just like this one, where the full moon hung in the sky and she'd cast a spell to never fall in love. Without even thinking about it she chanted a recall of the Amas Veritas, hoping with all her might that she'd remain alone until the day she died. It was the only way she could survive.

" _The guy I dreamed up doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist then I'll never fall in love and die of a broken heart."_

**Okay I am dying to know what you guys think of this story? Daryl will come in end of next chapter at the earliest, I am still trying to fit it all in. This is where the story will deviate from the movie a bit, how Daryl fits into the picture. But you'll see. ;) And I think you will like it. I have carpediem-365 to thank for her splendid idea there and of course again mellymoo13 for requesting this in the first place.**

**Heavenly Encounter will be updated later tonight so be on the lookout for it. Until next time, xoxoxoxo**


	2. Amacitia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth has a new patron in her brand new shop and the girls are subject to some taunting. You'd think after one hundred years, kids would think of a new chant, but that was the way of the Greene family curse. It just kept on giving.

_Amacitia_

_Beth's breath hitched in her chest as she felt his fingers sliding along her already wet opening and she moaned into his mouth. She hiked her leg up higher on his hip as he pressed her into the wall of their bedroom, the plaster cool on her bare back where he'd just stripped her shirt over her head._

_His lips left hers and she was bereft for a moment before his lips found her neck, nudging her jaw to the side, gaining access to the smooth column of her throat. "Rick." She breathed into his hair, her eyes feeling heavier by the minute as his fingers worked their magic between her legs. She pressed her hips into him more fully, needing to amplify the contact and he growled against her neck, the vibrations sending a ripple of chills over her flesh down into her bones, every inch of her skin aching for him to touch her all at once._

_He reached down abruptly and wrapped her legs around his waist while he walked them to the bed, depositing her none too gently on their bed and slotting his body over hers. Beth loved every delicious pound of weight settling his broadly muscled chest over her nipples, the rosy buds tight and hard from desire. She watched, her breathing staccato as she watched him pull her shorts from her body._

_He smirked at her. "You ain't wearing any panties. That's a naughty thing Mrs. Grimes."_

" _To not wear panties?" She grinned as he moved his way back up her body, stopping to inhale deeply at the top of her thighs._

" _Mmmmm. I'll give this the proper attention later." He grinned wolfishly as he nudged her thighs open, Beth happily obliging as she watched him shuck his pants and boxers off in record time. "Nah, it's a crime to not tell your husband." He growled as he positioned himself at her dripping wet center. He entered her in one fluid movement as they both groaned, his lips crashing against hers as he swallowed her throaty cry._

_He thrust into her again and again, his slickness against her heat creating a friction that had Beth teetering on the edge and pulling back so much that she thought she would lose her mind. Rick reached between them and found that bundle of nerves and pressed his thumb over it as he pumped himself into her, harder and harder and all the sudden it was too much and she came with a thunder falling apart around him, the waves crashing over her again and again until she lay spent._

_Afterwards he pulled her into his arms, his lips finding her hair as he whispered, his voice taking on a dream like far away quality and all the sudden he was gone from beside her, the bed empty, cold and she was alone._

_His voice lingered in the room fading into the night and it was like he was never there at all. "I miss ya Beth. But ya gotta move on."_

* * *

Beth awoke from her dream with a start, an ache between her legs and stranger than any of it, her heart lighter than it had been in months. She puzzled at that. Normally these dreams made her sadder than anything and she could do nothing but lay in the bed and cry for an hour. But not today. She sat up straighter and ran a hand through the mess of curls on her head. She kept threatening to cut it but something inside her wouldn't let her. So she left it.

As she dressed she thought over the dream. It had been rather erotic, if she did say so herself. She had been thinking about the night Sophie had been conceived before she went to bed last night and she guessed that was what prompted the dream about him. Dreams were nothing new. She dreamed about Rick nearly every night. She missed him something fierce but last night before she went to bed, she had been desperate to cure her broken heart and had drank an entire bottle of wine and wrote poetry well into the night. She supposed the wine didn't help the content of her dream either.

She felt lighter though and she could only attribute it to the weekly conversations with her sister and her grief counselor Tara. Between the two she had at least two occasions to talk about everything, literally everything, even magic, without feeling like she was going to lose her mind. Tara told her she was making great progress and that pretty soon she wouldn't need to come anymore. Beth wasn't sure about that and besides she felt comfortable with Tara. She got the feeling that were it not for the nature of their relationship they might be friends.

She walked the four blocks to the store she had opened last week. It had been three months since they had moved in with the aunts and so far things were pretty much as they always had been. It was almost as if Ella and Annie were living out her and Maggie's childhood. The Greene curse. It had kept them prisoner for a century, forcing every Greene woman to live out the same fate time and time again.

The store had been her idea before Rick had died but she had somehow lacked the motivation to go through with it until now. It was a small boutique in the hustle and bustle of Main Street, which had a very southern Bohemian feel to it. The Apothecary as Beth had named it was a dual vision of hers and Rick's, a place where people could get high quality soaps and lotions with natural ingredients and also a place where Beth's creative side could come alive. She made jewelry from moonstone and jasper, amulets and pendulums mostly with the occasional bracelet thrown in. She invited the local townspeople to consign their handmade items in her store for a small fee. She had only been open for three months and business was pretty steady.

Oh there were a select few people that avoided the store like she was selling satanic bibles and painting upside down crosses on people's lawns with bat's blood. But it didn't bother her. Somewhere over the past three months, she had come to an acceptance that this was her life. She was getting her wish in a way. She had wanted to live out her life with the aunts, writing poetry and drinking tea. Beth smiled to herself, completely unaware that her spoon was rotating in her cup of Earl Grey, seemingly of its own accord.

The day passed with a steady stream of activity in the shop. That afternoon, she heard it before she saw it. The chant. The awful damn chant that had been passed down from generation to generation of idiots on Gull Island.

"Bitch, bitch, you're a witch." The cries came from outside her shop window. The girls walked to her shop every day after school. Today, it looked like they had company.

The spoon clattered loudly in the cup, the amber liquid sloshing over the sides onto the counter, as Beth rounded it to cross the store to the front door, her anger spurring her on.

"You'd think after all these years, they'd come up with a better rhyme." She muttered to herself.

Ella stuck her finger out and pointed. "I hope you…..you…I hope you get chicken pox." A collective gasp came from the gathered crowd.

"Ella Grimes!" She bent down to meet her daughter at eye level. "We do not cast!" Her voice came out as a hushed hiss.

"No mama! You don't cast. You probably couldn't even if you tried." She watched, her mouth dropped open as her daughter took her sister's hand and said. "Let's go Annie."

Beth heard her youngest as they walked into the shop hand in hand. "I think you hurt Mama's feelings." Beth's heart clenched in her chest. Why was life so damn hard? She turned back to the small crowd of people and with what dignity she had left walked back into the shop, fighting off an insane urge to flip them all off.

She thought about her young daughters, their innocence and hope so recently shattered. Maybe she was being too hard on them. They had lost someone too.

Suddenly Beth remembered how much being with the aunts and eating chocolate cake for breakfast and doing magic until the wee hours of the night had helped her. It had smoothed over the hurts in her heart. They were still there and she still missed her parents something awful but at least she had Maggie. And her wonderfully wacky aunts. Things could be worse, she decided and from that moment on, she vowed to be a little more lenient when it came to letting the girls partake in magic.

As she peaked into the back room where the girls did their homework, she had to smile. Their heads were bent together and they were whispering in only a language they understood. Between them they had three brown candles and a piece of paper in a metal bowl. "This will work, Annie. I know it. We'll have friends soon. Or else we can just be each other's friend." Sophie leaned forward and hugged her sister. She pulled away and touched her finger to the candles, leaning over and gently blowing. She pulled her finger away from the candles, a satisfied smile gracing her lips. Annie paper and placed it in the bowl with the candles and they both chanted softly.

" _With heart and mind I do now speak_  
Bring to me the one I seek.  
Let this paper be the guide  
And bring this new friend to my side.

 _Pain and loneliness be no more_  
Draw a compatriot to my door.  
With pleasures many and sorrows few  
Let us build a friendship new.

 _Let not this simple spell coerce_  
Or make my situation worse.  
As I will it, so mote it be."

Beth couldn't help the slight upturn of her lips as she walked away. She hoped the spell worked. Everyone could use a new friend, she thought to herself.

* * *

**THREE MONTHS LATER**

The door chime rung out and Beth called out from the back room where she was taking inventory on their most popular soap, the purple jasmine oatmeal blend. It was one of Beth's personal favorites but she had forgone buying it lately as she could barely keep it in stock. "I'll be right there!"

Beth stood up from where she was crouching on the floor and smoothed her hand over her jeans and walked back to the front of the store, the heels of her boots echoing in the storeroom. She couldn't believe how busy they had been lately.

She walked out to find a man in her shop, browsing through the lotions at the counter then moving to the display of necklaces, some of them ones she had crafted herself. "How can I help you?" She said, smiling warmly at the tall stranger. His hair was a bit too long and cast over his eyes slightly. She took in his strong build. He was more than a man, he was a presence almost. The thought was fleeting as he looked up from the display and Beth was taken aback by his eyes. They were the most sterling blue she had ever seen and despite their cool hue, they seemed to fairly smolder as they caught her gaze.

He nodded in her direction. "Need somethin' for my niece. Her birthday's Saturday."

Beth smiled at him knowingly. "How old?"

The man's eyes were disarming. "Ten. She's different."

Beth cocked her head to the side. "How so?"

"She wears her clothes different than other kids. She don't play with toys. Says they're for babies." Daryl reached up and ran a hand through his hair.

"Does she listen to music?" Beth had made sure they had a nice selection of CD's when she could.

"Yeah, but I don't know any of the bands she listens to. Mostly loud and screaming stuff." Daryl said thinking of Sophia with her ripped up jeans and combat boots, just like the kind her Daddy used to wear, before he took to the bottle and got kicked out of the Army. He loved his brother but he could be a shit. He was currently in jail for his umpteenth run in with the law, leaving Carol to raise Sophia by herself. With the kid's birthday coming up, he figured she could use something to cheer her up, something to maybe give her hope.

Beth nodded. She remembered Maggie going through a phase like that. She directed the man to the rack of amulets, fingering the rose quartz one Tara's sister had made. "She might like this." Beth watched, mesmerized as his large fingers ran over the pink stone.

"What's it do?" He asked, taken in by her bright smile and blue eyes, her form light and delicate. She reminded him of a bird. He shook his head to clear his stupid thoughts. What the fuck Dixon?

"It's good for balancing the yin and yang. Like the two sides of a person's soul. It also restores healing from emotional wounding." Beth's voice trailed off at the end, thinking she might need some rose quartz herself. She pulled the delicate silver chain from the display, the prism shaped quartz dangling from the end. It was a beautiful representation with muted pinks and whites and an almost milky hue.

Daryl didn't know why he was looking at this slip of a girl, all doe-eyed and innocent yet it looked like she held the pain of a thousand lifetime in her eyes. He shook his head and blinked, his hand coming up to the back of his neck, massaging out the sudden tension there. "I'll take it. Can you wrap it?" He asked as he reached in his back pocket for his wallet.

Beth nodded eagerly and flashed him a quick smile before turning to the counter, her hip knocking something loose and the end of the counter falling to the floor with a loud clatter. "Damn." She swore softly as she knelt to pick up the fallen container of mood rings. They were cheap dime store fodder but for whatever reason the kids that came in asked for them incessantly. Who knew she'd be making a living on fancy soaps and gumball prizes?

"Your husband ought to shore up that counter, stabilize it a bit." He knelt to help her pick up all the fallen rings that had scattered all over the floor of the shop as she followed along with the plastic container, helping him return them to their proper place.

His last word died on his lips as he looked at her, her gaze suddenly affixed to his and he knew. He saw the pain there. The pain of loss. He'd felt that way once, when his ma passed, burning down their whole house while they were at school, their Daddy off on a bender somewhere. They'd gone to the state for a while after that until their old man deemed to show his face, convincing the assholes in charge that he was fit to be a parent.

She cleared her throat and stood, after placing the last ring in the container. "My husband passed away." She turned from the counter, hating that her emotions had crept in at this moment. She had the oddest array of feelings. Thinking about her dead husband and standing here with this man that she was so completely drawn to but not really in a sexual way. Just something about him exuded warmth, but it was deep under the surface.

He nodded, unsure of what to say. "'M sorry about that. My brother left recently, so it's just her and her Ma. I think that's why she is like she is. Drivin' her to grey hairs." Carol had aged considerably since Merle had been locked up. He tried to help out with Sophia when he could but his job was demanding at times, often he would be gone for weeks. "I could fix it for ya." For reasons he wouldn't understand, he found is mouth opening as if he had no say in the situation. He gestured to the countertop as he sat the broken piece to the side.

"I couldn't ask you to." Beth said, placing his purchase in the bag after taking his money and placing it in the register. She handed him his change and his bag, her hand touching his briefly. She looked up in surprise and his eyes met hers.

He shrugged. "Think of it as a thank you. I'm gonna be the hero when she opens this. Only wish I could tell it like you do." He said honestly. She had a way with words like no other person he'd ever talked to.

Beth blushed. "Just tell her that her uncle is a good man. Are you sure you can fix it?" She motioned to him. She didn't know his name.

"Daryl." His voice was slightly gruff as he dug out his card from his wallet. "I'll be by tomorrow. Say around noon?"

"I'm Beth." She didn't know whether to extend her hand or not. In the end, he extended his and Beth marveled at how big his hands were compared to her own. All too soon, he was stepping away.

"See ya tomorrow Beth." He called over his shoulder.

Beth hoped he didn't hear her quiet gasp as the shop door closed. She watched his retreating form, his black leather vest stretching across his broad shoulders, hand-stitched angel wings covering the entire back side.

All at once for a brief moment she recalled that night twenty years ago. The Amas Veritas.

" _He will have wings, large and white, like an angel."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	3. Protego Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth runs into a few problems at the shop and calls the only person she can think of, Daryl Dixon.

Just after Daryl left she couldn't believe her luck but the back room sprung a leak in the ceiling and then it started to rain. Predictably the next morning there was a puddle on the floor in front of the desk. She mopped up as best as she could and she hoped fervently that Daryl could tell her someone who was a roofer to fix whatever was going wrong with the place now.

He wasn't wearing his vest when he came in the next day but it was alright by her. Seeing those wings on his back had reminded her too much of her anti-love spell and that was just something that she didn't need to think about just now. Not when she had more important things to do like ogle her customer-turned-handyman and how broad his shoulders were as he stretched his arms out to measure the board he was getting ready to cut to affix the counter back in its rightful place. She absently stirred her tea not even realizing that her finger wasn't on the spoon any longer and it was in fact stirring itself around in her cup, making a distinct tinkling sound around the rim of the cup.

He turned around abruptly and she knew she looked like a deer caught in headlights. The spoon clattered in the cup and sloshed liquid over the side. She really needed to stop casting while she was daydreaming. One of these days someone was going to get hurt, she thought.

Daryl grabbed his pencil from behind him and turned back to the board. She had been checking him out huh. Well likewise. He swore he had never seen anybody prettier than Beth Greene in all his days. He left the store the day before with a smile on his face and he knew it had to be because of her. Of course he'd talked himself down since then because when he left there yesterday he had been sure that she was the girl he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. But as reality set in and he'd gone home he realized it had to have been something he made up in his head. Things like that didn't happen to the likes of him. Good things just weren't destined for the Dixons.

He had concentrated instead on his latest case. He was finishing up his write up on his report for tracking a missing college student. There were not many in his trade and he was well known in the law enforcement circle because of his work with local police on some missing person cases in the past. He had been helping the feds with this one and though he didn't like getting involved in government shit it was someone who was a friend of Carol's and he hadn't been able to say no. When he'd found her last week, tied up in some sick fuck's garage with nothing more than a t-shirt and a blanket on the floor, he'd known that he was right to stay away from cases like these. He didn't have the stomach for it. He couldn't abide people hurting women. He hadn't been able to get the case out of his head since then. He'd tracked her with nothing more than the keys she had been carrying when she was taken. She had dropped them and he had picked up various clues from then on out.

But now that he was back here and this pretty little miss was eyeballing him and most definitely checking him out and his stupid pea brain went right back to forever and flowers and hearts and shit. What the hell was wrong with him?

Beth could not take her eyes from him and she suddenly worried that she might be seriously attracted to him. She felt the sudden need of protection and she summoned up her best protection spell in her mind. She walked to the back room and focused on her center, pulling in her energy and her aura closer to her body and thought with all her might in hues of gold and white and yellow and orange, just basically warm, like the sun. Then chanted softly, in a near whisper the spell for protection, a Protego Me chant.

_The breath of life_ _**  
** _ _And the light of my mind_ _**  
** _ _Creates an enchantment_ _**  
** _ _Of protection and comfort_ _**  
** _ _As the air I breathe is purified_ _**  
** _ _I surround myself with an orb of gold_ _**  
** _ _This golden haze_ _**  
** _ _Is constantly purified_ _**  
** _ _And separated from any negativity_ _**  
** _ _May my space be protected_

Daryl got up to go to the back room. He wasn't sure if Beth wanted the ends sanded rounded all the way around or if she wanted a slight edge to it. The place was set up to be rustic just like an old apothecary would be and that made it easy for re-fitting the place. But when he got to the door, he had to blink twice to see if he was missing something and by the time he did whatever it was had faded. But he could swear a moment ago Beth was lit up by some kind of glow and it made her appear even more ethereal than usual.

She felt instantly better for it and a soft smile played on her face, which immediately died when she saw the look on Daryl's face.

It was the creaking that made him look up and then leap across the few feet between them and knock her out of the way before the 2x4 fell from the rafter. It felt awkwardly behind them and made a lot of noise and took down a shelf on the wall on its way down but it had missed Beth. He didn't know what had made him do what he did. Instinct, he guesssed, but he was in a fix now. He was very much in the personal space of Beth Greene and she was definitely in his. The question was whether or not either of them minded it.

Beth didn't have time to process anything before Daryl was on her and even as she knew that a piece of the rafters had fallen with the ceiling, he was very much on top of her. She was leaned back on her desk and he had his arms braced on either side of her head and his face was inches from hers. He smelled divine and she didn't know where she got the air to breathe because it was getting more shallow by the minute. But he smelled like forest and man and she could breathe him in all day.

He finally came to himself and pushed himself up off of her and held down a hand to help her up from the awkward position he had knocked her into when he had come across the room like gangbusters.

"You okay?" He looked her over and she didn't look any worse for wear.

Beth was oddly bereft when he left her personal space so quickly. It was like he had been there forever and then suddenly gone. She was inexplicably reminded of Rick and then just as quickly that thought was replaced by Daryl's question snapping her back to the present. She looked at him equal parts dazed and like she was seeing the light for the first time.

She was supposed to know this man for some reason. She summoned a protection spell around him and then suddenly he saves her? It was not an accident. She looked up at him again, finally answering him. "I think so. Are you?" She asked him and without her even having to say anything he caught her meaning.

She looked at him expectantly. She looked at him like he had some kind of answer. He nodded his head. It was what was expected but what had just happened between them defied anything on his repertoire of dealings with women which albeit was very slim but he just couldn't shake that she was different.

He cleared his throat as he helped her stand upright again, knowing his fingers lingered longer on her hand than was absolutely necessary but she didn't seem to mind so neither did he. "You'll be needing somebody to look at that roof. My brother specializes in it. I could have him come over and give you an estimate later tonight."

Beth nodded her head. "I'm lucky you were here, Mr. Dixon. Thank you." It seemed so trite in light of the fact that he likely had just saved her from a concussion or at the very least a bad headache. He was saving her too from a figurative headache by offering his brother's services.

"Daryl." He nodded at her. "Only my old man goes by Mr. Dixon."

"Thank you Daryl. It seems I am in your gratitude now." She was being coy and she knew it. But it still didn't stop her.

He studied her for a minute. "Nah, we're even. The necklace remember."

Beth shook her head. "Nope. You saved my life. That counts for somethin'."

He nodded at her. He didn't know about that. He wasn't the damsel savin' type. But damn if he hadn't done just that. He finished up the job and helped Beth clean up the mess in the back room. By the time he finished it was near closing time for her. He tried not to think too much about the fact that he was hanging out like he was some kind of friend. He had never really had friends before.

Beth looked at him as he walked out of the door ahead of her and she turned the key in the lock. She turned back to face him. "You want to get a cup of coffee?" Saving a life for a cup of coffee.

Beth knew she had placed the protection spell on herself to keep herself from wanting to fall for this man but what if he could just be her friend. Maybe something of her girls' spell had rubbed off on her the day before and she needed a friend. And maybe just maybe he needed one too. She held her breath as she waited on his response.

Daryl nodded. "Coffee sounds great. Where do you want to go?" Worse things could happen than going to get coffee with a beautiful blonde beside him. Worse things had already happened to him. But looking at Beth, smiling ear to ear it felt like things might be looking up.

She beamed at him and took his arm. "I know just the place." As they headed up the street, she couldn't help but think again of that long ago chant as a little girl. A little girl who thought she had the world at her finger tips. Oh how wrong she had been.

She wished she could say she was surprised at the realization of part of the charm but by now, nothing with magic surprised her.

" _He will be fiercely protective of those he loves."_

That long ago spell came back to haunt her. She just dismissed the thought with a wing and a prayer and another round of a protection chant, looking forward to coffee with a friend. Her new friend, Daryl Dixon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, please leave a review, xoxoxo


	4. Amitas Veritas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow coffee becomes pancakes at the Greene family plantation and Beth isn't sure why, but she's really starting to like her new friend Daryl Dixon.

Ella finished her piece of chocolate cake that her aunt Prue had cut her after school and opened the book that she'd found in the back of the greenhouse. She was tucked away in her favorite reading corner where she went sometimes when she needed some time to herself. Savoring the last bite of the cake, which was about one of the best things left in this world if anyone asked her, she sat back to read.

The book she'd found was small and green and leather-bound and she wondered at what it could contain. There was something inside her that told her she was opening somebody's secrets, but she didn't let that stop her.

She thumbed it open and her young eye perused the pages with her momma's younger scrawling very recognizable. She felt her face redden, knowing she should close it. This was her momma's old spell book, one she'd kept when she was a young girl. Suddenly, more than anything Ella wanted a spell book of her very own.

She promised herself that she would just read one spell, just one entry, but then she just kept reading because she felt she was seeing a side of her momma that she didn't know existed. Ella loved her momma more than anything in the world besides maybe her daddy and her sister but ever since Daddy died, Momma hadn't wanted anything to do with magic.

She'd heard her whispering to aunt Maggie about the aunts. Something about a spell and how she'd never forgive them for making her fall in love.

Ella didn't know much but she knew her momma was sad. She would read just one more page. She flipped to the next page and that's when she found it.

_Amitas Veritas_

_A true love spell._

_He will hear my call from a mile away._

_He will fiercely protective of those he loves._

_He will whistle my favorite song._

_He will be marvelously kind._

_He can flip pancakes into the air._

_He will have wings, large and white, like an angel._

_He will be fast and swift and he will carry a bow._

This is the spell of true love and she was so confused for a moment. This must be a really old love spell that her momma had written. None of those things sounded like her daddy, except for the kind part. Her Daddy had been sheriff in their town and everyone remembered him as one of the nicest people they'd ever met. At least that's what they always told Ella when they saw her with that sadness in her eyes that Ella didn't think she'd ever get over. Momma either.

Of them all, Annie seemed the least affected, but she was just a baby.

Ella clutched the book to her chest, thankful for this glimpse into her momma's childhood when she had believed in magic.

And there were a lot of things that had happened to them, not all of them bad, but since daddy was gone, magic was gone too because Momma didn't want it around.

Ella hid the book away where she'd found it and went to tell Annie what she'd found, as all sisters do. She wouldn't understand all of what she told her but Annie agreed with her on one thing. Without magic, there wasn't a whole lot left. Magic was everything. Besides her momma and Annie, Ella thought magic was all she had left in this world.

And the aunts and their chocolate cake. That was still about the best thing in her book.

* * *

"I'm home!" Beth called out as she walked into the house.

It was summer, the sweltering Georgia heat in full swing, and the air hung heavy and but it was cooler inside the house. It was one of those old plantation houses and as such, it didn't have air, but a lot of well-placed ceiling fans made it much cooler than outside and Beth thought of apologizing to Daryl as he followed her inside her home.

The aunts were nowhere to be found and the girls had made themselves scarce as well. As big as this house was, a person could get lost for hours and never see another soul, she was convinced.

"I don't know where everyone is. My girls come home after school and it's just us and the aunts." She doesn't say the rest. Anyone else and she'd have spilled out her the whole tale of how her husband had died but she was tired of the pathetic looks cast her way from everyone and she didn't want to see that look in Daryl's eyes so she kept quiet about it.

Besides, though it still hurt, she was healing in some ways she thought. The Apothecary had helped her in more ways than one. Plus, she thought Rick would have approved of her moving on and getting on with her life and the girls' lives. This was their home now.

She led him into the back of the house into the kitchen where she began preparing the coffee pot to begin brewing. She was already looking forward to a steaming cup of coffee despite the heat outside. She thought she could drink coffee any time of the year.

Some people fancied those frozen concoctions but give her a good old fashioned cup of java any day.

"Is this 19th century architecture?" Daryl was asking her.

She shrugged. "It's been in our family for over 100 years so I am guessing that's about right." Beth said, reaching for two mugs as Daryl stood at the counter.

"It's a very nice home." Daryl remarked as Beth gestured to the seats at the counter, like this man was in her home every day. There was something so natural about him being here, though his presence was strange. He was so big, he seemed to take up all the room at once and Beth fidgeted with the cups at the sudden awareness of him as much as his words. What was it about this man that flustered her so?

"Thank you."

Ella came wandering in from outside then with Annie following close at her heels and both girls looked at the man in their kitchen and then at each other and smiled and came over to greet her.

"Hi, Momma." Ella looked up at her and she saw some of the worry lines that had etched their way onto her daughters face were smoothed out and she was grateful.

"Hi, baby. How was school?" She kissed her daughter on the forehead and then reached down and ruffled Annie's hair. "You too, munchkin. How was your spelling test?"

"Great!" Annie exclaimed smiling wide and it was then that Beth noticed.

"You lost a tooth!"

Annie beamed at her, her chestnut curls bobbing in the wake. "At lunch. It came out in my apple, just like you said."

Beth fought an urge to cry. It had been one of Rick's tricks with Ella. She'd told Annie about it this morning as she packed her lunch before school. "Remember to put it under your pillow."

"Momma, can we have pancakes for dinner?" Annie said, her brown eyes plaintive as she looked up at her.

Beth nodded. "Yes, pancakes for dinner sounds just wonderful. Ella, Annie, we have a visitor. This is Daryl. He came in to the shop to buy a gift for his niece. He's going to do some work at the store."

"Hi Daryl. Very nice to meet you." Both girls said in singsong chorus and then giggled again whispering something about true love spells and Beth smiled at them a little puzzled as they ran back outside.

"Nice to meet you." Daryl said, his voice gruff like it was at the shop. Beth couldn't get a good read on him yet but she'd already gathered that he wasn't big on words. And for whatever reason, that was okay with her.

"Kids." She said to Daryl.

Beth fixed their coffee and sat down beside him. "So do you have kids of your own or just the niece?" She instantly regret the question. That was none of her business.

But then he answered. "Never been married."

He already knew her story, so she didn't say anything to that and took a sip of her coffee. "Those are some great girls you have."

It was honestly the best thing he could have said to her. "Thanks. Ella is quiet and more like Rick. Annie is a little spitfire. She's been trying to lose that tooth for three weeks." She laughs a little and when she looks over at him he is looking at her so. She blushes before she can stop herself and brushes her hair behind her ear.

There's something so disarming about the way this man looks at her, like he can see straight through her.

Without thinking of why she was asking, Beth blurted out. "Would you like to stay for dinner? It's nothing fancy. Pancakes."

He hesitated for a minute and then he was nodding. "Sure. Pancakes sound great."

Their conversation after that is easy and not stilted at all. She tells him about The Apothecary and why she wanted to start the business. How it was the culmination of a life long dream to own a shop that carried herbal teas and botanical beauty products that were all natural.

"There's something about working with your hands and creating something from practically nothing that makes me feel good." She was stirring her coffee with her spoon like a normal human. She found she had to be very purposeful about her actions around people who weren't familiar with the craft.

"I build furniture." Daryl was saying from beside her and she looked over at him. Somehow, this didn't surprise her at all. She looked down at his hands, noting not for the first time how big they were. "Just rocking chairs and tables mostly but my friend helped me set up a website."

"Rocking chairs? I'd love to have some for the shop." Beth exclaimed. She could just imagine them. Rustic old fashioned rocking chairs in the little nook she'd set aside in the corner of the shop for people to come in for a cup of tea.

"I can make 'em." Daryl pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and fished out a card.

Beth read the inscription. "Dixon Woodworks."

"That website has pictures of samples of my stuff." She beamed at him. "I can't wait. I'll probably order them at the end of this week."

"It takes about six weeks for four. About ten weeks for two. I have a day job too." He was saying and Beth was smiling and she couldn't seem to stop.

"That sounds perfect." She sighed. "Time to fix pancakes."

He sat there and watched while she got everything out of the cabinets that she would need, mixing the flour into the bowl. She had just poured the first few onto the griddle when the girls came bursting through the back door, their faces red from exertion and Annie was holding her mouth and crying with blood streaming through her fingers.

"Oh my goodness!" Beth exclaimed, hoisting her daughter into her arms and setting her down on the counter. "Let me look, Annie sweetheart." She could hear Ella breathlessly telling her that there was a stick and Annie had tripped over it and banged her mouth on the ground.

Beth gathered a wad of paper towels in her hand, wetting them at the sink with one hand and smoothing her daughter's sweat-plastered hair back from her forehead. Once she got the blood cleaned up, relieved that there was much less than she originally feared, she could see what had happened.

Annie's gums where they'd recently lost the tooth had reopened and as well, she'd split her lip. She smiled at her daughter encouragingly. "It's okay, baby. That place where the tooth came out just got aggravated with your fall and you split your lip. Hold this paper towel on here and I'll get you some ice." She walked away from the counter, only now noting that Daryl had gotten up from his chair. She'd forgotten about him in the chaos of the last couple of minutes.

She got the ice and put it into a small baggie and sealed it looking around for him to see where he'd gone. She wouldn't blame him if he'd high-tailed it out of there at all the drama.

But as she turned she was surprised to find that he was at the stove. He'd found a spatula and had turned a couple of pancakes over already. The words were on her lips to thank him when she stopped and just stared at what he'd just done.

Before her eyes, he'd flipped a pancake into the air, catching it back on the spatula before returning it to the griddle to finish cooking.

Once again, that old spell came back to haunt her and she could only stare and wonder what in the world was happening around her.

_He can flip pancakes into the air._

It couldn't be. Could it?

She'd made the spell because he didn't exist and yet here Daryl Dixon was in her kitchen flipping pancakes in the air and she just didn't know what to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am hoping for bi-weekly updates with this story, but more if muse strikes (hint muse might strike more if you guys let me know you’re still reading and want more of it haha) Thanks again and until next time, xoxoxo


	5. Cor Meum Servare (Guard My Heart)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap you guys!  I am completely blown away at the response to the last chapter.  Not only did you guys jump back in as if this story was never on hiatus, but a BUNCH more folks jumped on to read and favorite and comment and stuff and I never imagined that it would get that kind of response or that anyone really wanted to read this story even, so thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. 

 

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

 

Chapter 5

 

_Stone of the earth,_

_Guard my heart with your strength._

_Protect it from evil and harm_

_That no danger may pass,_

_No threat draw near.  - Heart Protection Spell_

 

_Dear Maggie,_

_The girls have settled in great and summer is in full swing.  They are finally out of school and having fun every day with the aunts, just like we used to.  I still miss Rick and I think I always will, but it doesn’t hurt like it used to._

_The store is doing great.  I had to hire someone to help around the store and he’s been a big help.  The ceiling almost caved in on me so he kind of saved my life.  His name is Daryl and he’s really nice.  He came into the shop for a necklace for his niece and the girls went crazy over him because he can cook pancakes.  They miss you by the way.  When you are coming back for a visit?  Surely, that boyfriend of yours can spare you for a couple of days to see your family.  I’d tell you to bring him but I am not sure how well that would go over with the aunts.  Haha_

_I miss your face.  Call me soon!_

_Love you to the moon and back,_  
  


_Beth_

 

_Dear Maggie,_

_Sorry I haven’t called.  Things have been crazy and I promise to call soon.  Shane has had us on this round of parties lately and I can hardly keep up.  He wants me to try modeling for this guy he knows.  So we’ve been working the circuit on that._

_Shane is so good to me.  He bought me a new car Beth.  A new car!  Can you even imagine?  Daddy would roll over in his grave to know I’m driving something other than a Ford.  But it’s small and red and has a sunroof and it’s about the nicest thing I’ve ever driven._

_I promise I’ll come visit soon.  I’ll slip him some extra belladonna or something like I did the last time.  Don’t worry, it’s just a little harmless magic.  It never hurt anyone._

_Gotta run, I’m so tired but I have an appointment for a mani and pedi.  Shane likes it when my toes are pretty.  He has some weird fetishes but I’ll save that for when I see you again.  Just in case the aunts read this before you get it.  Just kidding!  Hahaha_

_Love you to the moon and back,_

_Maggie._

 

Beth folded the letter and put it back in the envelope as she walked back into the house.  It was full on summer and it was so hot in the house now she could barely stand it.   Daryl was after her to let him put in an air conditioning unit but the aunts had opposed it every time she’d brought it up before now so there was really no use in asking now. 

Beside he was doing enough for her already.  He’d fixed the counter in The Apothecary and the roof too and when there had been signs of mice in the back room, he had installed humane mouse traps and disposed of them for her in the woods.  She felt like she was depending on him too much. 

She thought again of when been at dinner the other night over and every time she thought about that moment, her heart flipped over in her chest just like that pancake. 

Her Amas Veritas she’d cast so long ago was coming back to haunt her in human form it seemed.  But she’d been just a young girl at the time and it couldn’t possibly mean anything.  They were just silly girlish whims.  She’d believed in magic when she was a little girl. 

But now?  Magic had brought her nothing but pain.  If the aunts hadn’t cast that spell on her that day when she’d met Rick, she would never be feeling the way she felt now, so lost without him.  But then she thought she wouldn’t have Ella and Annie and she couldn’t imagine her life without those two little girls in it.

She didn’t want to become the bitter widow, just like her ancestor Katherine Greene, but Beth would like very much if she never felt that kind of pain again. 

Beth put her bag down in the front hall and reached into it, pulling out the package she had brought home for Ella. 

Her daughter had been insisting on having a leather bound journal to write in.  She had insisted that the color be green and Beth had taken the time to order one from the many vendors she ordered from to stock her store with the same type of items she sold there. 

Beth smiled at the fact that her daughter wanted to keep a diary.  Beth had kept one when she had been her age.  

“Annie, Ella, I’m home!”  She called through the house as she deposited her keys beside her bag and headed for the kitchen.  The girls were likely playing out back as they had been all summer so far.  She hadn’t been able to keep them inside for longer than five minutes except for supper and baths.  It did her heart good knowing that her girls were spending their childhood just being kids. 

Both of her daughters came running at the sound of her voice.  She wasn’t surprised.  It was a common thing in the Greene family to be able to sense when one’s family members were near.  They came streaming in from the wide double doors of the kitchen, cheeks pink from the sun and out of breath. 

“Hi Momma!”  They both greeted her with hugs and kisses and she bent down to give each one of her daughters a kiss on the forehead.    


“I brought you something Ella.”  She held out the package for her to take and the little girl’s blue eyes lit up with a smile at the sudden surprise. 

“Me too! Me too!”  Annie was jumping up and down and Beth laughed, pulling a smaller package from her pocket.

“Yes, you too.”  Annie pulled the package from her with her tiny eager fingers and Beth smiled watching her girls open the small trinkets she’d brought them. 

She knew she couldn’t come home with something for Ella without bringing something for Annie so she’d found her a small locket to wear around her neck and placed a photo of her and Rick inside.

“It’s me and Daddy when I was a baby.”  Beth swallowed past the lump in her throat and smiled at her daughter who was bouncing on her feet, her blonde curls bobbing in her wake.

“Put it on me, Momma, please?”  Her daughter begged and Beth sent a prayer heavenward for these girls. 

Their father was gone, but his legacy lived on in their daughters and she was thankful for that.  She put the necklace on her youngest just as Ella finished opening her present.

The little girl lunged for her, wrapping her arms around her middle, hugging her.  “You’re the best, Momma.”  She barely had time to register the little girl’s hug before she was running off, presumably to write in her new journal. 

Beth smiled at her youngest, who was proudly displaying her new necklace and sticking her chest out in front of her trying to see what it looked like.  Beth laughed.  “Go up to my room and look in the big looking glass mirror.  It’s beautiful on you.” 

“Thanks Momma!”  Annie ran off and up the stairs and Beth headed to the kitchen to see what in the world she was going to make for dinner.  The aunts had their weekly coven gathering tonight so it would just be her and the girls.

She thought again of Daryl and wondered what he was doing.  It was silly to call and invite him over for dinner.  He was her handyman.  He probably wouldn’t even want to come.  She had gotten the paint in that morning.  Maybe she could just call and tell him that the paint was in so he could repaint the wooden beams he’d replaced in the back room.  Then she was faced with having to figure out why she was making up reasons to call a man she barely knew. 

She fished her phone out of her pocket and dialed, getting him on the first ring. 

His voice was even sexier on the phone somehow.  The thought ghosted into her mind out of nowhere. 

“Hello?”  As he answered the second time, she realized she had not said anything yet and finally was able to stammer out a greeting.

“Hi Daryl, it’s Beth.  From The Apothecary.”  She felt the need to add the last part.  She didn’t know if he would remember her.

“Yes, I know.”  His laugh on the other end was a little unexpected and all the sudden she was even more flustered.

“I was just err, calling to let you know that the paint came in.”  It was not a lie.  She had called him for that.  But then she couldn’t help adding.  “Do you want to come over for dinner?  I mean, you’ve been a good friend and such a help to me and all.  I just want to thank you, I guess.”  She rushed to add the last part, as if she needed a reason to invite him over.  Which she did.  But that was beside the point. 

She waited and listened to the silence on the other end and wondered for a minute if he had hung up after he’d gotten the message about the paint and then finally he spoke. “Sure.  What time?”  He said simply.

She released the breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding at his answer.  If he was surprised by her invitation, he wasn’t letting on.   “Six.” 

“Okay, see you then.” And with that, they hung up.

Daryl Dixon was coming to dinner.  And this time, she wasn’t making pancakes. 

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Daryl hung up the phone and stared at it in his hand, wondering what the hell had just happened.  He’d told Tyreese he was going to stay home and do absolutely nothing when he’d invited him out for drinks. 

But then Beth called and invited him to dinner and without even realizing how it happened or why, he found himself saying yes.  It was like he couldn’t say no to her, which was ridiculous.  He just met her.  He was not beholden to her in any way.  She was pretty and he did some work for her.  Well she was more than pretty.  She was beautiful; probably the most beautiful woman Daryl had ever laid eyes on, but still. 

Sure, she’d made him look like a rock star in front of his niece Sophia.  She had loved the necklace that Beth had recommended he get her for her birthday and Sophia had declared him the “best uncle ever” which Daryl had snorted at.  He was her only uncle, after all, but still he loved that kid and there hadn’t been a time he’d seen her lately, that she wasn’t wearing that necklace around her neck and it made him proud that she liked it so much. 

And grateful to Beth all over again.  She was really something.  He thought about going over to her house for dinner and the last time he’d been there, it had been nice. 

Her daughters were cute, so much like her.  The oldest one had been pretty quiet around him, stealing glances at him every now and then while she wrote in a little notebook in her lap.  The younger one had come and sat on his lap after dinner.  She had just climbed up there, pretty as you please and plopped herself on his lap and stared up at him and it had been the strangest thing.  He’d looked straight into those big blue eyes, so like Beth’s and he thought he’d pretty much given his heart over to that little girl in that moment. 

Her mother had admonished her to get down, but Daryl had told her he didn’t mind.  The little girl, Annie, had sat there and told him all about how she’d lost her tooth and she couldn’t wait for the tooth fairy to visit her tonight and she was going to try to catch her wings.  Daryl’s eyes had flashed to Beth’s, his eyebrows raised in a question. 

Beth had just laughed.  “It’s something my aunts told her.  That if she reached out and caught her wings, she’d have to tell you all her secrets of how to be a tooth fairy.” 

Daryl had stared at her.  He thought he’d be terrified as a little kid to find that some lady dressed as a fairy would slip into his room at night and slip money under his pillow.  Beth had smiled at him though that sweet smile of hers and he’d found himself smiling back and wondering at the kind of childhood he had and how different it was from these girls. 

Beth was a good mom, he decided then and there.  Here she was raising these kids all by herself, just like Carol.  He wondered if his own mama would have been better at being a mom if his old man hadn’t been around. 

All the sudden without understanding why, he was looking very much forward to having dinner at Beth’s house. 

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly and without really understanding his motivations behind it, he trimmed his beard and mustache and showered, then changed into fresh jeans and a button-up shirt that Carol had made him buy and left it untucked as a last measure. 

Finally satisfied, he grabbed his keys and his smokes and headed out the door.  He decided to take his truck instead of his bike since it looked like it might rain and settled himself in for the short ride across the island that would take him to Beth’s place. 

He turned up the radio and whistled along to the tune playing, some old Tom Waits song and told himself that he was only happy because he was doing something other than staying in and moping like he did every other night.  It had nothing to do with seeing a certain blonde in five minutes.  Nope, not at all. 

 

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Beth did not know what was wrong with her.  Daryl had arrived not five minutes ago and he’d filled up her doorway so suddenly that thought she must have been struck dumb by his presence.  Or rather, his appearance.   It was clear that he’d cleaned up for the evening and it made her glad that she’d taken the time to change into one of her sundresses for the night.  It was so hot in the house.  She hoped he wouldn’t be too warm in that shirt that seemed to already be stretched to the gills with how well his arms filled it out. 

She flushed at remembering how he’d stood there looking at her and she realized she had been caught staring at him. 

And now she is continually flushed and he looks (and dear God, smells) so good, she is having a hard time concentrating on making dinner.  And it is just spaghetti.  There is nothing complicated about spaghetti.  But so far, she’d failed to be able to find her sauce, home-canned from her garden at her old house.  Then, she’d forgotten where she’d put her apron, when she was already wearing it. 

He’d pointed it out with a tiny little smile on his face.  “It’s, err, right there.”  He’d pointed at her chest and she’d flushed realizing that he was taking her in, in such a way.  

Why in the world was it so blasted hot in here?  She wished for the umpteen billionth time that the aunts would let her put central air conditioning in here.  It would make the summer Georgia heat so much more bearable.  But they insisted on keeping the integrity of the house and she couldn’t argue with them. It was theirs, after all and she was just grateful that they let her and the girls come and live there.  But, it’s what their family did.  The Greene family took care of their own, no matter what. 

Hattie and then Prue came into the kitchen just as dinner was finished cooking, announcing that they had business in town.  Which Beth knew was their weekly coven meeting, but they weren’t going to say so in front of Daryl. 

They both looked to her and she realized how rude she had been.  “I’m so sorry, forgive me.  Daryl, this is my aunt Prue and my aunt Hattie.  This is Daryl Dixon.  He’s the man I told you about that’s been helping so much.”  

“Lovely to meet you Daryl.”  They both said in unison and then they smiled at each other in that way of theirs that brought a frown to Beth’s face immediately.  “We hope you’ll enjoy your night here.”  Prue said pointedly and Beth’s face flushed all the way to her ears.  They were _not_ trying to fix her up with her new friend. 

“It’s nice to meet you too.  It was good of Beth to invite me.  This is a lovely home you have here.”  Daryl said and Beth could tell he really meant it. Since he built furniture, it made sense that he appreciated good architecture when he saw it. 

“It’s hot in the summer but we love it here.”  Hattie says. 

“If you ever decide to put central air in here, let me know.”  Daryl says and Beth thinks it is so nice of him to keep offering his services, but she already knows the aunts’ answer before they say it.

“Well, I think that would be wonderful, don’t you Hattie?”  Prue says with a wide smile and tips her hat at Daryl. 

Beth just stares at her in shock while Hattie answers.  “Why yes!  We were just telling Beth the other day that we should put central air conditioning in here.  Daryl, you are a peach.”  Hattie says and steps forward and kisses Daryl on both cheeks.  Then Prue does the same and Beth is speechless but that’s nothing compared to Daryl.  He doesn’t appear all that comfortable being touched by the women, but he obliges them just the same and ducks his head, the tips of his ears turning bright red. 

“It’d be no problem.  I’ll draw up an estimate.”  He nods at them.

Beth just looks at her aunts in shock.  “But you said-“.  But, she doesn’t get to finish her sentence.

“Oh, come now, dear.  It’s okay.  We changed our minds.  Now, go on Bethie, your spaghetti will get cold.” Prue admonished and then stepped forward and put her hands on Beth’s shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks. 

“Love you Bethie.”  Hattie then said and hugged Beth and kissed her cheeks and then they were both gone before Beth could say another word. 

“I’m sorry.  Did I say something wrong?”  Daryl asked and she looked up at him, still slightly surprised at what had just transpired.  Her aunts were being sneaky, but she was on to them. 

She shook her head to clear to it and looked at Daryl, smiling softly at him.  He was really too kind. “No, not at all.”  She said with an even brighter smile and her hand shot out to his arm, without even thinking, but he didn’t pull away. 

His arm was warm and firm and hard and every bit as muscular as she imagined it to be.  And he was smiling back at her. 

He was so close and Lord, he smelled good.  Flushing with embarrassment at her train of thought she pulled her hand away and turned around to get the spaghetti and called for the girls.  “Ella, Annie, supper is ready!”  The girls came scampering in from outside. 

“Hi, Daryl!”  Annie said brightly and came over immediately and threw her arms around his waist in an exuberant hug.  Annie had always loved with her whole heart and Beth smiled.  She was probably starved for male attention and she reminded herself to tread lightly with this friendship. 

Ella was hanging back a bit, hugging her journal to her chest but she had a shy smile on her face as she watched Daryl return her sister’s hug. 

As Daryl stood back up, he seemed to notice Ella’s reticence and Beth’s heart surged with something unfamiliar as he spoke to her daughter gently.  “Hi, Ella.  I see you have your journal.  I was there when your mom ordered that for you.  She knew you’d love it.” 

Daryl had been in the store doing the work in the back room when Beth had ordered it and he’d told her it looked like a “fine choice.”  He hadn’t seemed to care one way or another at the time, but she’d reminded herself that she’d had to help him pick out his niece’s birthday gift. 

But drawing Ella in conversation like that?  It was honestly the best thing he could have said.  Ella beamed at him, throwing her blonde hair back over her shoulders and sticking out her chin with pride.  “I’m a lot like my Momma.” 

“You look just like her.”  Daryl agreed with a smile. 

“Momma is pretty!”  Annie exclaimed and sat down at her seat as Ella did the same. 

Beth held her breath as he answered her youngest.  “She is.”  He looked at Beth and smiled and she didn’t know how she didn’t drop her fork right into her lap after that.    He thought she was pretty. 

For all her nerves, though, dinner was a pleasant affair with the girls chatting happily with each other and with Daryl and herself.  It seemed they had built themselves a clubhouse within the greenhouse and she couldn’t fault them for that.  She remembered her and Maggie doing the same thing when they had been children.  It had been so long ago, but she recalled it with fond memories.  She was happy, though the circumstances weren’t ideal, that her girls could have a good childhood growing up here. 

The girls flitted off to their rooms for their bedtime routines while Beth stayed behind and cleaned up the kitchen. 

Daryl jumped up to help her clear the dishes from the table. “You don’t have to do that.”  She protested. “You’re a guest.” 

“Thought we were friends?”  His eyes held a glint in them as she looked at him over the plates they held in their hands and she realized he was teasing her about their earlier phone conversation. 

She smiled at him and her face felt warm and all the sudden that warmth spread all the way to her belly as she looked at him.  “Yes, we’re friends.”  She agreed and he smiled back. 

They took on the task together, cleaning the dishes from the table and then worked side by side as she washed and he dried.  It was a comfortable kind of quiet between them and Beth kept stealing glances at him to see if she could discern what he was thinking, but he was very into his task. 

She turned back to wash the last dish and she heard him begin to whistle and she could hardly believe her ears. 

“That’s my favorite song!”  She exclaimed from beside him, one hand on the dish and one hand on the sink, because she thought she needed something to hold her up at this point.    

The words of her spell are coming back to haunt her.  Again.  

_“He will whistle my favorite song.”_

“Tom Waits.”  They both said at the same time and Beth laughed and Daryl’s soft huff of laughter followed a second later. 

Then he gestured for her to continue.  “It’s my favorite song.”  She felt silly for repeating herself but it really was her favorite.  “’Hold On’;  I used to sing it sometimes to my girls when they were babies.” 

He nodded at her.  “You sing a lot?” 

“I used to.”  She said with a quiet smile.  “Haven’t in a while.”  She didn’t finish what she was going to say.  She hadn’t sang much since Rick had passed. 

“Well, I best be getting home.”  Daryl said and Beth found she was slightly disappointed that he was leaving.  And then she remembered the spell and how everything was coming together a little bit too close for her and she resigned herself to it.  It was probably best that he leave. 

She walked him to the door and he turned to her as he stepped onto the porch.  “Okay to come by tomorrow night for that estimate?” 

She smiled at him.  “Yes.  Yes, that would be just fine.”  She waved goodbye as he left and found herself looking forward to tomorrow night despite herself.

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

It had been hours and she still couldn’t get it out of her head that Daryl had been whistling her favorite song.  She tried not to tick off the other items in her head but she couldn’t sleep and her brain wouldn’t let it go so she found herself thinking about that spell and she ran down before bed and retrieved it from the back corner of the greenhouse just where she’d left it. 

She read it over again and took inventory. 

_"He will have wings, large and white, like an angel."_   Check. 

" _He can flip pancakes into the air."_   Double check.  He’d flipped more than one pancake, after all. 

_"He will whistle my favorite song."_  Holy hell.  What in the world was happening?  _This was not happening._   She couldn’t believe it.  She _refused_ to believe it. 

She laid back with an exasperated sigh, her old journal open on her chest.  She was never getting to sleep tonight. 

Just before it happened, she got an intense feeling of something very wrong in the world; specifically with Maggie and then the phone rang.  “Maggie.”  She whispered before she reached for the receiver on her bedside table. 

Maggie is crying.  “Bethie.  You have to come.  _Please_.”  She is whispering and her voice is hoarse as if she’d been crying for hours. 

“Where are you?  What happened?”  Beth’s heart is in her throat at this point and she is already out of her bed and throwing her things into her purse and pulling on jeans. 

“I can’t tell you everything right now, but you have to hurry.  I don’t know how long he’ll sleep for.  Please hurry, Bethie.”  Beth had never heard her sister so distraught and her eyes pricked with tears.  She was in imminent danger, she could _feel_ it.    

“Yes, I’ll come, but just please tell me where you are.  Breathe, Mags.  I’m coming.”  Beth said into the phone, careful to whisper.  She already feared that the phone had woken the girls. 

“I’m in Atlanta.  I’m in a coffeehouse downtown.  I’m safe for now, but Bethie he’ll find me.  He always does.  But I don’t know what else to do.”  Maggie said pleadingly, sobbing again, but Beth didn’t need any convincing.  Shane was going to pay for whatever he’d done to her sister. Of that, she was sure. 

“Text me the address.  I’m on my way.”  She said and flew out her bedroom door, pulling on her jacket as she went. 

As she reached the bottom of the stairs in the front hallway Hattie and Prue were at the front door with her keys.  They must have gotten the same sixth sense that she had before the phone had rung.  It was a common trait with Greene women. 

“Be careful dear. Call us when you’re on your way back.”  Hattie said as she kissed her goodbye. 

“Don’t worry about the girls.  We’ve got them.”  Prue was saying as she hugged her. 

“Thank you both. And I will.”  Beth said as she went out the door. 

She had to get to Maggie and fast.  She feared her life depended on it. 

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  Hope you enjoyed that chapter.  It took a little longer because I’m moving next month and everything is crazy town at my house lately.  This world is my hideaway.  Lol  
> 
> I hope that Daryl doesn’t seem too out of character in reading it but try to remember that he is really under a literal magic spell that was cast by Beth as a young girl.  Don’t worry, it will all connect later in a way that will make sense. 
> 
> The next chapter will obviously deal very heavily with Maggie and what has transpired between her and Shane and then what happens with all three of them.  It’s going to be a little bit of a different take than the movie as far as the direction of the plot and Daryl’s involvement but I think you’ll like it.  At least I hope. 
> 
> Thank you everyone again for all the lovely comments on the last chapter.  It really helped me in getting this one out to you guys.  Please, if you would, be loves and leave another one before you leave. Thank you guys!  Xoxoxo  

**Author's Note:**

> Please be kind and review xoxoxo


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